The Denial Twist

Ebegail White was waiting for her girlfriend outside her classroom. She had agreed to meet Sera right after her last class that day, since she finished up after Sera on that particular day. Sera wanted to hang out, and Ebby did not have the heart to turn her down in favor of work. She knew it bothered Sera, although Sera never said anything about it.

Ebby knew a lot of things that Sera never said anything about. That was just the way she was.

Sera had finished up in art class way earlier, but it was hard to get away from the classroom on a day like that. All of the other students had a tendency to mill around looking at each other's work, like they couldn't think of anything to do with time that was supposed to be filled my class. A couple of girls had paused to compliment her sketches and she'd gotten distracted by the fresh, deep scratch on the girl's arm. By the tme she left the classroom, the scratch was healed and she was slightly more tired, in need of some juice and a while to sit down.

She had plans, though, and she was excited to spend some time with Ebby. They didn't have uninterrupted time together very often and she missed her like crazy when they went whole days without seeing each other in any meaningful way. Outside of her family and school, Ebby was the biggest part of her life, way more important than any of her other friends. Add onto that the sunny warmth of being her girlfriend, a special spot, and she craved it every day, a brighter patch in any bright day.

"I'm late," she said when she was face to face with Ebby. It wasn't an apology really, but she did feel bad that they'd probably have less time together because of it. She was sure neither of them would be glad for that. "How was your day?"

"Long," Ebby said, not at all surprised that Sera showed up late. "But not bad, overall."

Looking at Sera, Ebby could tell that her girlfriend felt a bit more tired than usual. Although there was still a cheery smile on Sera's face, she looked a bit worn down.

"Who did you heal?" Ebby asked. Ebby had worked with Sera on her healing ability for ages through the mentoring system. It was how they had become close. They had spent lots of time working on Sera's endowment, and Eb knew the way Sera's powers worked, most of the time.

Early on, Sera had gotten used to the way her girlfriend seemed to always know just how she was feeling. It was just another Ebby thing, something that was good almost all of the time. "Just a girl in art class. It was just a surface wound. I should be better in no time," she said hopefully, not wanting to give Ebby any reason to call off their hanging out time. Thanks to their working on her powers together, there'd been many a day when she'd been sent to rest instead of hanging around after practicing.

Eb frowned. She looked at Sera for a second--the girl was tired, and one of her hands was shaking. Ultimately, though, she decided that Sera was right. If it was just healing a surface wound, Sera should be fine again soon. "Okay. I just had to make sure. You don't always take the best care of yourself." That was an understatement. Sera was prone to expending all her energy to try and heal all the wounds of everyone she came across.

"So what do you want to do?""

"I'm just trying to practice," Sera explained for what felt like the hundredth time. She knew that there was no way that she'd hurt herself seriously with the little problems she liked to heal from day to day, especially not with her magic backing her up. "I need something sweet before I can really do anything fun," she admitted.

"I know you want to practice, but you don't need to overexert yourself. You burn enough energy just by being so enthusiastic, and you keep busy." Ebby knew that Sera was generally fine, but she did worry that Sera would start getting overconfident in her abilities and start doing more and more little jobs. Lots of little jobs could be just as draining.

"Something sweet it is. Have anywhere in mind?"

Sera's smile wavered slightly and she glanced down at her feet, feeling chastised. She trusted Ebby's judgment when it came to these things, but she was pretty sure that she knew when to stop on her own. She quickly brightened up when she realized that they were going to keep their scheduled time together anyway. Even just being around her girlfriend seemed to energize her almost as much as the sugary drinks she usually used to compensate.

"The cafeteria, if you want something too. If not, I have some orange juice in my mini-fridge."

Ebby pondered it for a second. She knew she should probably propose hanging out in a more public place, but she had not seen Sera nearly as much lately as she would have liked, and if orange juice worked for Sera, she was fine with it. "I don't need anything. We could go to your room, if that is okay with you. We have not really spent much time alone lately."